Archive for January 24th, 2007
PayPals New Tool To Fight Phishing
I’ve done a couple of posts lately about password cracking and online security, and in your emails and comments I can hear your frustration: What is being done about this online epidemic? Well, PayPal (one of the most heavily-targeted financial websites) is finally taking steps in the right direction, with a hardware security key that [...]
Google’s Promo Has Affected PayPal
Maybe it is a coincidence. Google recently started to offer a $10 credit to e-commerce customers who use its CheckOut product. For a few days Google (GOOG) even highlighted the offer for its PayPal competitor on its home page. At about the same time, traffic to Ebay’s (EBAY) PayPal site has dropped sharply. According to [...]
Analysts Watching eBay’s Core Auction Weakness
The world’s No. 1 auction Website, Ebay is showing weakness in its core auction revenue with no indication of improving conversion rates, despite lower listings, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy. “Investors should focus on user monetization and marketing efficiency metrics,” writes Rashtchy. The investment banking analyst noted that listings were down 8 to [...]
Skype Cleared By Judge in Antitrust Lawsuit
A federal judge has thrown out an antitrust lawsuit filed by the distributor of Morpheus file-sharing software against Internet phone service provider Skype Technologies SA, eBay Inc. and other defendants. StreamCast Networks Inc. had sought more than $4.1 billion in unspecified damages and a court order blocking eBay from selling Skype services. In her Jan. [...]
Is Google Slow Start Making an Impact on PayPal?
That’s what I call a good, but not massive, start. They also found that: * Google Checkout users are younger (57% under 35), more likely to be male (penetration rates 2x more for men) and more affluent (34% have incomes over $75,000) than PayPal. * Only 19% of Google Checkout users reported it as Good [...]
USA Today: President’s Bush’s State of the Union health care proposal couples an old idea, capping tax-free benefits for health care, with a new one: a standard deduction for all who buy health insurance. If approved, and the plan faces a chilly reception in the Democrat-controlled Congress, the administration says it would give people who [...]
The Passionate Entrepreneur: In the United States, microlending is often achieved through credit cards because formal microlending is too expensive administratively for traditional banks. But many of the neediest people don’t have credit histories, and credit cards have very high interest rates. The Clinton administration introduced a microloan program to be administered primarily by nonprofit [...]
Inc.: Greg Wittstock, who likes to be called the Pond Guy, built his first pond at the age of 12. Today, more than 20 years later, Wittstock runs a thriving empire that not only builds backyard ponds, but supplies and teaches thousands of contractors every year on the latest and greatest Aquascape techniques. “I moved [...]
5 Ways to Lower Your Computer Support Costs
Joshua Feinberg at Small Biz Tech Talk: 1. When in doubt, reboot. Before you consider an issue a real computer support problem and call your computer consultant, always reboot first. 2. Protect against viruses with a strong defense. Make sure every PC, notebook and server in your office is licensed for antivirus software, has antivirus [...]
